Sunday, July 18, 2010

Which one to recommend?

About three months ago, TCM aired the Italian science fiction movie War of the Planets. It's airing again tomorrow morning at 10:15 AM. What I didn't mention then is that the movie was part of a four-movie series. Another of those movies, The Wild, Wild, Planet is also airing tomorrow, at 8:30 AM. This one is just as screwed up as War of the Planets, having a mad scientist who kidnaps people for his experiments using a multi-armed man wearing the traditional bad-guy black hat and cape, as well as women with large chests that explode. Of course, there's also the good guys in jumpsuits, and the mod styling of the 1960s as the basis for the future. Oh, and the characters sometimes go through a theater that's presenting some bizarre play which in and of itself does nothing to further the plot. Still, it's a riot to watch.

These aren't the only two movies tomorrow morning that are so much fun. Preceding both of them, at 7:15 AM, is The Killer Shrews. You can probably guess much of the plot. A ship captain goes to an offshore island to provide supplies, only to have the scientist working their mysteriously try to drive him off the island. The captain's curiosity is naturally piqued, and he finds an experiment gone wrong that results in giant shrews that threaten to eat them all alive -- as well as the scientist having a lovely daughter for the captain to fall in love with. A good portion of the plot sounds lifted from Forbidden Planet. The only thing is, this one didn't have the budget MGM did. So, we get cheap black and white, no-name actors, and really, reallly bad-looking shrews. Not bad-looking as in mean, but bad-looking as in awfully made. Still, this one is as much a riot as the Italian sci fi movies.

So maybe record them all!

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